Author: nicole.baumann

Cat Power – Sun

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★½☆

Cat Power, or rather, the woman behind the moniker, Charlyn Marie Marshall, is essentially a staple in a great deal of self-professed indie music fans. Since as early as 1995, Cat Power has been releasing albums, though the success of Marshall has been debated over the years, as her live performances showed signs of her degradation from problems with alcohol. That was back in ’06; in ’08 Jukebox surfaced and showed signs of revival, though far from a knockout record. Now it is 2012…has this front woman and backing band put the “power” back in their name?

Starting things off on a wonderfully groovy note, “Cherokee” opens on a bubbly note. Simmering in its slow, rolling drumbeat and its angled guitars, it slowly builds, layering sounds so that you focus on Marshall’s purr of vocals, whose transfixing, yet subtle elements blow other female vocalists (i.e. Lana Del Ray) out of the water. The tone of the track is kept pretty mellow throughout due to the steady percussion, but the vocals push it further and further, each chorus swelling. Marshall spits her words out quickly, relying on assonance to aid her in the flow of the lyrics and you’ll be singing along with her, joining in on the chill and yet stimulating opener. Akin to that hiss you hear when you twist the cap on an ice-cold soda, “Cherokee” is a sure sign of good things to come.

A similarly catchy number that follows a song later is “Ruin,” on which the fluidity is still present, but the song comes across with more a pop sound due to piano sounds, and a more casual approach to the percussive elements. The instruments all bleed into one another, and yet have their place at some point at center stage in the song, which is owed to the tone that the group has established early on in the album. As the album progresses, Cat Power hits you back to back to back with effortless, yet stylistically complex tracks that allow for total immersion in the music a quality that felt a little lost on past efforts.

So the answer to the question aforementioned is yes—Marshall is on point in her songwriting and the instrumentation on Sun enhances the seductive, but never lewd, prowess of such a front woman.  Fans of Cat Power will rejoice, while newcomers will find another artist to enjoy; it’s a solid enough of an album to induce interest in the entirety of the songs created by this band, which is what any already established band can hope for.

Poor Moon – s/t

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Side project of two members of Fleet Foxes or not, Poor Moon is essentially the child of Christian Wargo, bassist/vocalist for the aforementioned band. For years, Wargo wrote and recorded songs on his own before he decided to bring along Casey Wescott, as well as Ian and Peter Murray to help bring his bank of demos and songs to fruition. Thus was born Poor Moon—a band to adapt a collection of songs into a collective album.

Naturally, with musicians from such a well-known band in the folksy/indie scene, people will be drawn to Poor Moon for its ties, but those who come looking for the vast dependency on warm harmonies and big, swelling folk sounds will have to keep on looking, because for the most part, this effort showcases folk sound on a smaller, minimalist scale. Take the first song “Clouds Below” for example, begins with some gentle guitar plucking and the soft vocals of Wargo, which meander in coolly, harmonizing with the impossibly higher backing vocal to create a serene and simple opener. This sets the tone for the album, alluding to signs of a peaceful, folksy sound.

But, the band picks it up a bit from where they leave you after “Clouds Below” especially on the third track “Same Way,” where things get groovy. One of the strongest on the album, the song employs some opening ‘ooh’s’ and is backed by strong melodic xylophonic sound as well as big echoing drums that fill the previously empty background of the song. There is a quite an enjoyable breakdown towards the end of the song that is just long enough to give you a taste of the musical ability of the members of this band and it makes you desire a bit more depth from the songs of Poor Moon. Through the rest of the album, you listen for little pieces of this depth that the band demonstrated on this song, but sadly they are in short supply. It isn’t the lengthy and full storytelling and serene folk album that feels right for the genre and it comes across as a group of songs that were forced to sound similar, as opposed to the authentic and natural production of an album.

Most of the songs are relatively short for folk numbers that are reaching to be meaningful and impress a feeling upon their listeners, which leads me to my biggest complaint about this album; there just isn’t enough on here to really make an impression on those who take a listen the first way through. With repeated listens, it’s possible to grasp and really hold on to the music that has been so meticulously laid out for its audience.

Divine Fits – A Thing Called the Divine Fits

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★½☆

When there is a collision of famous indie artists, it’s not really an exaggeration to say that the internet world blows up a bit. So a few months back when this project between Indie darlings Dan Boekner, Britt Daniels, Sam Brown and Alex Fischel came to the surface everyone was abuzz with excitement for their debut album. As a fan of Spoon and Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs, the main projects of which Daniels and Boekner are frontmen, I jumped right on the excited bandwagon. How could this much creative genius combine to equal something less than amazing?

First up on the album is the much hyped single “My Love is Real,” which features Boekner taking the lead on vocals and a heavy amount of synthesizer and other electronic sounds. It’s an interesting start, as it is a pretty straightforward song, lyrically and sonically. You have the steady drum machine beats, some thick synth lines and Boekner iterating that “[his] love is real…until it stops;” a tangible one liner that can get itself stuck in your head for hours at a time. Next up is “Flaggin’ a Ride,” on which Daniels takes vocal lead. Noticeably, it sounds a lot more like Spoon, as the first song exhibited signs of Handsome Furs. Apart from the vocal similarities, you have the signature guitar lines that takeover the song and the overall rockier sounding song.

The album progresses gradually, with most of the tracks ringing true to their titles, which are often repeated quite frequently. Another standout, and perhaps the most cohesive song for this group comes on “Baby Get Worse,” on which Boekner has the lead in the beginning and the focus is strong on synth lines and buzzing beats. However, instead of leaving on a one note status, a break comes late in the song with electric guitar surging through with Daniels shortly following, giving it the magic touch of both of these guys. “Shivers” also possesses such a factor of intrigue as “Baby Get Worse,” despite it being an altogether Spoon-ish sounding effort. The lyrics on this ninth track walk a bit on the somber side, but are no less than the brilliance that we’ve all come to know, doling out lines like “my baby’s so vein she’s almost a mirror,” and other quirky darkness that adds to the overall appeal of the Divine Fits.

While this is by no means a bad album, it is a bit of a disappointing one. I was expecting the powers that combined on this work to be greater than the sum of their parts, culminating to an excellent new super group I could get behind. However, A Thing Called the Divine Fits comes across as a mixture of slightly altered songs from the original bands of these gentlemen, but when it’s such talented artists, who’s really complaining?

The Antlers – Undersea EP

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★

The Antlers, hailing from Brooklyn, have been making groovy tunes for some time now, but they made significant waves last year with the release of their third studio album, Burst Apart, which graced several ‘best of the year lists,’ including that of this website. That album left us all ready for more, so when the band released a new single and announced this EP a mere year after that brilliant record, it’s safe to say fans were stoked, and The Antlers do far from disappoint; Undersea immerses listeners in layers of complex sounds that you’d expect from this band, but through the lens of an underwater film noir.

On Burst Apart, we saw a dramatic shift in focus from songwriting to the overall atmosphere of an Antlers song. Yes, the songwriting was still there, but Peter Silberman’s half-falsetto crooned amidst atmospheric sounds instead of riding on the very top. This seems to be a permanent and effective change for the group, as evident on “Drift Dive,” the first track on this EP. Going along with the nautical theme as shown by the title as well as the album artwork, the track dives right in where the band left off, keeping that heavy and yet easy sound and you instantly feel like you’re swimming in cool waters of the somber horns, glossy guitars, and bubbling percussion, with Silberman’s vocals leading the way.

Frankly, all the aspects on this release work marvelously together and it’s everything you want an EP to be. There is the dedication to the deep-sea theme, but it doesn’t become boring as it could have been on a full-length album. Each song can stand alone as a sultry and sonically beautiful submarine ride of its own, but all together the four tracks add up to a twenty two and a half break from reality into the world this band has created for you. Song after song they take you deeper underwater, so that by the time you get to the fourth and final number, “Zelda,” it’s easy to find yourself engrossed in the sound, wondering how it such a heavy sound could feel like it went by so quickly, but it’s not over yet. The last number is the icing on the cake, with Silberman’s echoed voice bringing this dream of an album to a close in The Antler’s elegant sexiness.

While it seems like everyone else is furiously working to stay on top of the music scene, The Antlers have suddenly become the cool guy in the back with sunglasses on, one step ahead of the curve and I encourage them to keep doing their thing, as it’s working.

Eternal Summers – Correct Behavior

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★★☆

It’s hard these days to find a blow-your-mind pop record that will last you longer than on or two listens without boring you. Often, I’ll fall in love with an album that falls flat upon further inspection, so when I first listened to Correct Behavior, I assumed that it would be once again another throw-away album, but Eternal Summers have a bit more in store than that.

You can’t really blame me for believing that this album was going to be like others when you listen to the first track, “Millions.” It’s got all the symptoms of a one hit wonder written all over it: endless guitar hooks, toe-tapping worthy drums and the perfectly shrieky vocals of lead singer Nicole Yun topping it all off. Sensationally sunny, the song starts things off infectiously, maintaining the youthful sound that Eternal Summers brought to the table on their debut, Silver, but also a bit fuller than that of previous recordings. Yes, the track still only lasts two and a half minutes, but it’s a bit meatier than before, although all the sunshine that you could ask for, which led me to think it was a little too good to be true.

This feeling of astonishment continues, as the band lays down hit after hit in the main bulk of the album. Third on the roster is another standout track in “You Kill,” which once again brings the power pop in its raging guitars and quick-tempo percussion. The song is one of the longest on the album and it does not disappoint. It pushes and pulls from chorus to verse, Yun’s voice being the element to lead you through both. Towards the end you have the nice garage-y breakdown that adds yet another dimension to Eternal Summer’s sound; twists like these help keep things fresh as the record continues. Another one of these unexpected turns comes on “Girls in the City,” with male vocals and a greater emphasis on the drums than the guitars, which leaves me a little reminiscent of The-Go-Betweens and bands of the like.

When all is said and done and Correct Behavior comes to a close after a brief thirty minutes, you’ll immediately be ready to give it another spin. This three-piece band does their thing and they do it well, fulfilling your desire for a fun summer release, but they also don’t make it easy to part with their sound at the close. It’s fittingly akin to the name of the band in that like this season, you don’t really want it to end and hopefully Eternal Summers have found a way to make their sunny punk-pop carry into the cooler months…which seem to be quite a ways away for us Austinites.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/03YouKill.mp3]

Download:Eternal Summers – You Kill [MP3]

Twin Shadow – Confess

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★★☆

Big hair, high-waist jeans and new wave pop are all things that belong to the eighties, right? Wrong. These are all things that aren’t hard to find at present, but unlike the first two on that list, George Lewis Jr. brings his take on eighties new wave to the present with a sleek soulfulness that makes for a plain sexy record in Confess.

From the album title, it’s apparent that this is going to be somewhat of an intimate work, and Lewis does not disappoint on this aspect through his prominently poetic songwriting about his trials of love, or lack thereof. On “Golden Light,” the opening track, this front man seems to be modeling his music after other pop giants of the eighties and so the focus rests on his vocals. Waves of synthesizer back him up, interchanging with other electronic elements that build the drama of the music up to the chorus, where it jumps to Lewis belting. It’s an interesting start, as it definitely introduces listeners to his style, but it doesn’t make a lot of bold steps, which all seem to fall later on the album.

Things begin to really pick up from the third track, “Five Seconds,” and from here, Confess flies by in a frenzy of dance-inducing dramatic synthesizer saturated music. “Five Seconds” bursts into action with its memorable electric guitar sound dueling with Lewis’ clear tones, which confess “I don’t believe in you/you don’t believe in me,” and while we are introduced to the idea that love hasn’t come easy for the protagonist of these songs, (“I can’t get to your heart”) we are treated to a delightful track birthed from these woes. Up next is a sinister number in “Run My Heart” which features another explosive chorus from Lewis. He starts out low, and then bellows “This isn’t love,” laden with plenty of emotion and self-assurance and once again, he’ll have you trying to keep up with him through his denunciation of a love and love in general.

But, like a true confession, this album isn’t entirely devoted to bashing love; there seems to be some conflicting feelings about the subject, which can be found on “The One.” This track offers another side in which the protagonist’s love is real and devoted to one person with “something special” about them. In addition to this new dimension, the song has a groovy bass line and faster rhythm that provides for another hit. Such is the rest of the songs; they battle back and forth with how they approach the subject of love, turning into a dramatic pop toss up, but you won’t find a number that is less than interesting.

At ten tracks in length, Confess may seem like a small record at first perception, but after your first listen, it’s apparent that this is a bigger work than it seems to be. So give it a spin and soak up some new-new wave, you may just find yourself dancing right along.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/fiveseconds.mp3]

Download: Twin Shadow – Five Seconds [MP3]

Echo Lake – Wild Peace

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Last year, this band first hit the music scene by releasing their Young Silence EP, which demonstrated their ambient/psychedelic pop styling’s. On their first full length, Echo Lake lives up to their name in the biggest way; Wild Peace is a collection of distortion and mirages that combine to create a cloud of hazy indie rock that may leave listeners a little hazy on how they feel about this record.

Things start out bright on the first track, “Further Down,” with an intense amount of echo to the vocals and thick layers of guitars and synthesizers, as expected. It’s a good balance between the harsh electronic sounds and the sugary vocals, which give off a creepily serene vibe. Juxtaposed well, these elements hook you, making you wonder just what exactly this band has to offer. Echo Lake continue on the upward slope with the second song “Another Day,” which immediately bubbles above the first track in energy. Whereas the first track was mysterious and dark, the second is lighter, with its jangly percussion and faster tempo. Linda Jarvis’ voice takes a more prominent role here, leading the song instead of becoming another element of the atmospheric background; a role I wish it would take more often on the rest of Wild Peace.

To me, this album feels a bit like the gradient shown on the cover in that it starts out so strong, but gradually fades away from your attention as it progresses. Such is a shame, as there are quality tracks to be found on the second half of songs, but by the time you get there, things already feel too far out of your reach as though you’re only hearing echoes through a wall of the room next door. Take “Last Song Of The Year,” which is an exceedingly interesting listen on its own. With more pronounced percussion and clearer, centralized vocals, it comes across less ambient and more like noisy lo-fi. Complete with some nice guitar lines interspersed, the song makes for an easy and enjoyable listen, but it’s buried seven layers under massive amounts of atmospheric buzz that prevents it from standing out.

There just simply isn’t enough variation from track to track to give this album the ups and downs it needs to prevent it from being a large mass of fuzz and echoes. Separately, there are some really solid tracks on Wild Peace, but collectively, it comes across as flat, missing the production it needed to push it to be something great.

Wild Peace is out now via Slumberland Records.

The Eastern Sea – Plague

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★★☆

As we all know, Austin is a giant arena for up and coming bands to make their names known, but in such a big scene, how do you stand out amongst the others trying just as hard as you? For The Eastern Sea, their delicately forceful rock, complete with some uniquely striking vocals sets them apart from the average bedroom rock band. Upon first listen, Plague gives off an illuminating quality that yields further listening and promises that this band has a lot to bring to the table.

The opener and title track introduces the deep sound that The Eastern Sea builds upon with the rest of the album. A slow burner, “Plague,” relies on a thick coating of atmospheric sound and a gradual build that shows the range in Matt Hines vocals. It’s a refined number that reveals just how much control the band has, and the restraint that is employed early on, leaving you yearning to know just what is in store when they let loose. As if they know what you’re waiting for, the next song, “Wasn’t For Love,” picks up the pace and gives you a taste of the layers of complexity that combine seamlessly. The track begins with a groovy bass line, and continually adds upon itself with a lighter line of jingly percussion, a looping guitar hook and of course Hines’ James Mercer/Ben Gibbard-esque vocals. Some horns join in on the chorus and later in the song, and you’re forced to marvel at how very put-together this band is; they are controlled chaos at its finest, knowing where to reel in before it becomes too much.

As aforementioned, in a town so big on music, something is needed to set apart, and what the Eastern Sea has going for them is their control and an album packed with interesting and excitingly good songs. There are numbers like “Santa Rosa” on which the lyrics are sharp and quick witted, and more horns join in, leading up to a sizzling couple of choruses, before they pull back and end the track on a quieter, refined note. The band pulls back one slower numbers like “The Match,” but still builds to an explosive ending. There is a great mixture of loud and quiet, controlled and chaotic that pushes the elements of sound of this group above others.

There really isn’t much to complain about on Plague; it’s a beautiful album that will have those who love some classic indie rock begging for more. So enjoy this effort from a local band and look forward to this band blowing up in the near future.

Metric – Synthetica

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★½☆☆

When it comes to catchy pop with a superstar of a front woman, Metric has been a staple for years now. Their last effort from 2008 showed a transition to a stronger electronic sound from the angular guitars that early releases relied on. Three years later they are back and the title, Synthetica tells you where this band is headed with their sound before you even hear the first song; artificial and synthetic and further down the road they turned onto with Fantasies.

If the album title wasn’t enough to clue you in to the direction of the album, the first track ought to the do the trick. “Artificial Nocturne” starts out with waves of synthesizer and Emily Haines’ sleek vocals claiming she’s “as fucked up as they say.” This lasts for the opening two minutes of the album, before the guitar and drums kick in and the song begins to go anywhere. At this point, Metric eases into the familiar sound that they’ve given you before, but it feels distanced, as if you have to search to find the pop music that this band has previously doled out with ease.

As far as songwriting goes on this album, it seems as though Haines has grown a bit lazy, which is the main reason that Synthetica falls flat upon listen. Before, the band put out songs with a heavy electronic presence, but the lyrics that Haines spat at you were catchy and interesting, gracing the music with human accessibility. A lot of the tracks on this release feel lazy, with overly repeated lines, which may be catchy, but become stale after they are the very crux of the songs. One of the worst offenders of this repetitive business is “Dreams So Real,” whose two-minute-and-forty-one seconds of existence feels like it goes on forever while Haines reiterates that she’ll “Shut up and carry on,” and sadly, you wish she would.

Of course there are exceptions to this phenomenon that are quite enjoyable. Embedded in the far away tracks are those that you can connect to with hooky guitar lines and Haines sultry vocals leading you along. Songs like “Breathing Underwater,” and “Lost Kitten,” prove to be interesting and real additions to your listening bank of Metric songs. “Breathing Underwater” is a seamless combination of the synthetic elements with the grounded guitar lines, reminiscent of “Gimme Sympathy” off of their previous release. “Lost Kitten,” is a sassy number on which the quick lyrics draw you in and then Haines holds you with her understated power vocals.

Synthetica is not the step into a new, interesting direction that I was hoping Metric would take. Rather, the majority of this album is muted and lacking the shimmer that sets Haines and company apart from the average pop band, however, I invite you to wade through Synthetica to find those gems.

The Walkmen – Heaven

Leave a comment

Rating: ★★★★☆

For a whole decade now, The Walkmen have been gracing your ears with their jangly rock music. Now, when I say that, I truly mean it; this band makes albums that linger in your music collection for long periods of time, seemingly timeless in their nature. Earlier albums proved rugged and loose, running wild with youthfulness and spunk, but as I said before, it’s been ten years, lead singer Hamilton Leithauser and company have grown up, and so has their music. Heaven is a testament to this, as the band brings you a different kind of rock album.

Right out of the gate, it’s clear to see the direction in which The Walkmen have decided to go with this seventh studio full-length release. “We Can’t Be Beat,” meanders its way to start, with Leithauser crooning along to some gentle guitar plucking, with sporadic “oohs” floating through the background. Even as the song picks up a bit at the end, the lushness is ever apparent through the use of layered vocals and delicate percussive elements. This lush sound is a general theme of the album, carrying through most of the songs in some shape or form. It’s extra present on some of the later tracks like “No One Ever Sleeps,” that focus on the vocals. A number on the slower side, it comes across as a bit of a lullaby with more billowy and wispy “oohs” that work their way through the lead. The song is gentle and sweet, juxtaposing Leithauser’s sharp voice with the softness of the backing instrumentation.

This group doesn’t have the same reckless abandon that they did when they first started out, but would you really want them to after ten years? A bunch of thirty-something year old guys who all have kids trying to act like kids? No, that would be silly and out of place. Instead, this band has a healthy alternative that still packs a punch for old fans. Songs like title track “Heaven” and “Heartbreaker,” incorporate old with new and are straight up catchy tunes. “Heartbreaker” is a song found early on the record that gets things moving with those rolling drums and hooky guitars, while “Heaven” is a summery sounding number that will have you tapping your toes. There will always be those who reminisce of the old days of this band when they put out jams like “Rat,” but there are acceptable rock songs on this effort as well.

Yes, it’s a grown up record, but by no means is it a snoozer. The Walkmen have made growing up something cool and envied, riding upon the waves of their musical and personal successes. They relish in their coming of age with grace, inviting you to come along for the ride. So join in with them and enjoy the beauty in Heaven.

 

1 … 107 108 109 110 111 … 119
Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com